NO ACTION REQUIRED

      In Romans six and seven Paul, a Jewish Pharisee, is not only explaining God's new revelations to us, but also speaking of his inability to follow his heart in his love for God's law, which was given to the Jewish nation and peoples only. He is also lamenting upon his inability to refrain from sin, as a earth dweller in the flesh. "I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me Rom. 7:21 wey. Take note, this was the greatest of all the Apostles if you will who exclaimed "Oh retched man that I am" Rom. 7:24! Perhaps the most honored man among mankind ever, excepting God's Son of course. A man who not only saw Jesus in His Heavenly Resurrection Glory but also a man who had personally seen the third heaven or the divine paradise of God. "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven, in the body or out of the body I do not know" 2 Cor. 12:2. A man who was given the all new revelations, which were never before contemplated, which became the explanation and the road upon which all Christians now tread, even though many are unaware of it. The Christian life as reckoned by Paul's teaching, of a God inspired doctrine, of internal Christ Jesus identity in spirit. A man whose teaching on the exclusively spiritual/positional or heavenly life [his identity in God's eyes] of the Christian is almost never mentioned in most churches today. " Your life is hidden with Christ in God" Col. 3:3. 

      I spent many years [35] in the same condition [not knowing]. It was not until my inability to perform the so called Christian life I had been exposed to as example, and my sins and guilt were overwhelming me that I discovered, as Paul had, that Christianity would never bring any relief from my first nature. Yes the very human nature God had to condemn unto death [judicially] was still active in me. That of a earthly man seeking his own satisfaction. No matter how uplifting the music or feel good the message, my service to the church, or even the inclusiveness or socialization of old fashioned fellowship, I was still left empty. It was I learned all for the best, as He [the Holy Spirit] then [when I was ready] showed me the utter simplicity of Paul's message from the Father. The Doctrine [teaching] of identification and position that makes up the explanation of our new second creation nature, which we may approach and possesses only in faith. But first [to have it in conscious knowledge] of course we must be well acquainted [by knowing His Word] with Christ Jesus' biblical expressed sanctified positional transference of our personal being, as see by God, too a all new creation, as represented by Him Himself in Heaven. "Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" Eph. 1:3.

      Few seem to realize we have [old and new] two natures, both active within us. Yet Paul taught that that was so, and he suffered under the old as we all do. "Now if I do what I will not to do, but sin that dwells in me" Rom. 7:20.  The old nature is present as we are captured within our flesh or the ego and is unacceptable to God.  Unfortunately to accommodate the ego or old man much of our Christian experience is designed by men to identify with form/conceptualization/action, which is the opposite of the nature of the new man we are shown to be by Paul. A new identity which is wholly spiritual, or of the mind. And of which the experience of is found in the rest in God's truth, as taught by Paul, and only lived by faith. We then may discover what we have internally and experience it as eternal life, beginning now; in reckoning upon the fact of our spiritual presence in His Son in heaven. "Hid in Christ in God".

       The new way, the reckoning way [counting it as true] positional [Christ as object in Heaven] way of faith, God's biblical expressed way, is obscured however by religion and tradition, experience and showmanship. Even service is often a path which reflects upon the old natures constant need for reaffirmation. So what then has Paul showed us in his new Gospel that we may apply the new spiritual nature to our inner mans identity, absent of form? He has given us a all new way to God, that of Spirit, which within us is, and can only be, of the mind...so we could say spirit, as understanding, is simply conscience.  Although a new ["renewed mind"] conscience, which requires a change of mind from the old identity, in order to honor God. This was Paul's entire message. "Rightly dividing the Word of truth" 2 Tim. 2:15. Unfortunately few churches teach this biblical truth as it does not reaffirm the ego and does not necessarily play to human earthly satisfaction and comfort. The institutional traditional modern cultural church leaders are simply often victims of their own manmade ideology and tradition designed in order to have a comfortable methodology for their constituents. In essence they simply do not know of any other way.

      I think that the real reason for all the activity in many churches is to provide what is expected. The old nature must be constantly renewed, the ego requires it. Often churches good intentions are draw from their Christian world view being steeped in old earthly concepts. They drag the old way of the earth into the new dispensation of Spirit. The old testament and the synoptic books were all about the earth man of old. But this man had no spiritual life or perception. All of his godly activities centered around the produce of the earth. The reformed church [Protestantism], while bringing the need for faith as the central truth, never broke away from the Roman government churches' worldly adherence to the themes of the old Jewish system which promoted law and a attitude of action. A system that was formed/allowed [Jewish Law and developed traditions] by God yes. But interpreted by minds that served the earth. Minds which were so self centered that they willfully ultimately even colluded with the hated pagan Roman government to kill their own Messiah.

     The Jewish mind saw all life as one completed and always carried out on this earth. Worshiping a God whose concern is always for the earth. And so a mind that was deeply controlled by earth bound concepts. This mind [the millennial or kingdom mind] wrote the old books and the synoptic. This mind was formed by God to display Himself here true, but a new way [after Pentecost] has come now. A spiritual way. Although many Christians know little of it as a life experience, absent of emotion that is, as most teaching is taken from the old message and the synoptic.

      So then, without a new creation biblical learned heavenly attitude, founded upon a biblical faith, and a common hermeneutic as taught by Paul in his new Gospel, the church of today is still effectively Roman influenced. All based upon Jewish old testament thought. By that thinking then the new protestant reformed church was too function as a unit of God's design in order to form a better man and to preform helps upon the earth, really to prepare the earth for Christ's return by mans effort or build a kingdom for Jesus. The expectation of His return of course is a act of faith, that by the way we are too be most prominently thinking of. A expectation or thought very seldom heard today! So then might this great loss of the churches eminent anticipation of His return contribute to a laxity in spiritual apprehension?

      If the new creation truth of the Word is to detach us from the former things and the flesh, the world and its influence, to bring peace and liberty, and to direct the hope of the Christian it must be definite. "The Spirit of truth takes what is mine and will make it know to you John 16:15. Thus is the spiritual way taught by Paul, a all new way absent of earthly expectations This is not often made clear in todays institutional traditional Christian culture.

      The  overriding notion that the church is made up of workers who are to serve Christ on earth is the likely culprit in our mis-identity. True under God's Grace much is allowed and faithful service is important.  Yes we know all things under Grace, even our sins, are made to display His providence. His grace abounds in our works and service, even when done under the auspiciousness of the world system. So how then do we explain ourselves, our role, in light of His view of us as found in Paul's identification spiritual doctrine separate from action? We must discover that we are seen only within His Son [position and identity], who is [Christ Jesus] His recognition and thought of our personal being or presence according to His perfect standard requiring no performance on our part. Do we now have something more to learn for His Spiritual identity to grow, to win our hearts by these all new spiritual standards just as Paul struggled with his spiritual children? "My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ [in Spirit] be formed in you." Gal. 4:19.

      In light of the fact that there is not one bit of us in the flesh [natural actions] that is acceptable to the Father what are we to do. "For the flesh [natural man] lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and are contrary to one and another" Gal 5:17. Most of us Christians are still under the reformed concept that we have been somehow made new within the flesh, a converted carcass if you will. When we are distinctly told or commanded to walk in Spirit only. I remind you spirit is formless therefore strictly of the mind."Let us go past the elementary stage in teaching and doctrine of Christ" Heb. 6:1a.

      Contrarily to the acts of the natural flesh it is a wonderful moment when we realize that by faith we may appropriate and occupy our heavenly position via a new conscience in favor of the Father. We may do this only as we reckon the old flesh dead as we defer to the occupation of Christ Himself as our image and life, a heavenly position. For this too happen however we must know His Word as taught in Paul's new ["my gospel"] gospel or truth concerning our all new creation. That of Spirit and mind establishing a all new identity within our mortal bodies, one of Spirit, His Spirit. Therefore formless, no action required....."advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity" Heb. 6:1b.

   

ENTER INTO HIS KNOWLEDGE

      All that we are or ever can be comes from the heart of the Father. But in order to experience it we must connect with His love, and not merely the benefits of it. Otherwise we will not be established in His intent for His believing children. Which is nothing less than the very identity of His Beloved Son Christ Jesus. "He [the father] has chosen us in Him [the Son] before the foundation of the world" Heb. 10:19. His love has made us clear [by viewing and judging us wholly within His Son] of all that stands against us as sinful pilgrims on the earth; so that we may experience Him freely as life in spirit. "He said to me, My Spiritual strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that power is developed" 2 Cor. 12:9. Yes His is a new kind of love and not just known or found among His gifts or in the grace which we receive in His service on earth. Nor even in His greatness and power in which we may glory in, in worship.

      No the paramount thing for the Christian is gaining the knowledge of just what He [Jesus] is in Himself to us; those who have received His Spirit! Or how has He formed himself in our beings in thought or apprehension by Spirit. "Being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the consul of His own will". Eph. 1:11. If true then what is it then that stops us from making this clear for the conducting of life here in a way which honors who He has made us too be within His Son? Knowing Him as a present and lived spiritual reality, for conducting life here and now, as mental position, Him as our very identification in thought and contemplation. To know if this has become or  is yet to be a reality we only need ask ourselves are we satisfied with the man or women we are now in Christ? Or are we in need of His spiritual growth? Perhaps we should listen carefully to Paul.

      Paul said of his Christian experience and life; "I count ALL things as loss for the excellency of THE KNOWLEDGE of Christ Jesus my Lord". The all was the world and his vision of his place in it and included the relying upon his own spiritual intellect.  Paul had also not found his spiritual adequacy in the acquaintance he had with the Lord, in his gratefulness for his own salvation, or even considered his spiritual relationship with Christ Jesus as the final reality. Not finding any divine descriptive satisfaction in a service rendered and a job well done. No much more was required of him for the knowledge and living of the Christian life, and of us also.

      If it was as simple as raising your hand at church to receive Jesus in order to live the Christian identity then we could all just enjoy the pot luck and good old fashioned fellowship and afterglow as we sway to and fro to the music and continue on the road toward our own and the worlds cultural enhancement, really what is our own self satisfaction. Paul saw these same issues in the early church as well as in himself as he said of himself ["for I do the very things I would not do"]. And we also need more of The knowledge of Spirit to honor Him in this current life.

      Paul showed us, by the Fathers inspiration, that the new life consisted of a much deeper mindful obligation, requiring or honoring no action or works of the Adam man. A new life, one of a new identification in conscious thought. A new conscious awareness, which is described for us in God's word's. "Now you are [spiritual] light in the world" Eph. 5:8a. Words mostly ignored, by a shockingly biblically illiterate congregation. Who are often enabled by a professional institutional clergy, dedicated to caring on many programs, so all may remain in a place of self comfort and satisfaction. All done [I say sincerely] no doubt with good intention and Christian love.

      So then how may we gain the mind of Christ as we are commanded? "Walk as children of light" Eph. 5:8b As I've said many times, first must come need. After which must come a change of mind, provided by individual and private scriptural study. Our mind must be prepared for a new realization, a new identity, learned from Paul Himself, alone in our room. How? Well some understanding of our very nature must come first, how our mind works must be understood before His identity is transferred to us in any awareness. A spiritual mental process must be developed for freedom from slavery to ego, form and ritual. A release from our natural Adam nature [form, content] must be sought. Which along with Paul requires the conscious loss of all that is of the earth. This is accomplished merely through conscious knowledgeable observation.

      A knowing escape from a earth bound tyrant who will always attempt to fight with all his power. Which is a consuming and a resident power within, the ego. Self will always seeks to control and maintain that control over our defining qualities. There is no escape from its influence as long as we remain on earth. Why? In order to hold us to things which glorify the flesh attracting feeling and emotions for it's verification as our identification, a false invalid and dead I.D.. This was Satan's program from the beginning for mans diversion from God's identity, his former oneness with Spirit. Adam was thus encouraged to seek his own way and thereby losing his spiritual oneness with his creator God. By that self centered act we all became captured in identification to form, a form of the flesh and the world. A form which will always sin. So we simply must find another way.

      Form/content is the opposite of the freedom which we are called unto now by God's Word. We must inquire in the new revelations of Paul for the answer toward discovering a new freedom of spirit. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, and you are complete in Him" Col 2:9,10. One devoted to acquiring a completely new identification, counting the old Adam one dead and now by faith viewing ourselves in the very person of Christ Jesus the Son of God. Our redemption unto a new never before existing creation."That we should serve in newness of Spirit" Rom. 7:6. Jesus the God Man before the Father, and us incorporated within Him. We are now new heavenly creatures by His Spirit living in us. God lovingly acquiring us as individuals, intact in self awareness, but now positioned in the life of Christ Jesus; in His sight in the very person of His Son who is in heaven, us inclusive at His right side in His Spirit or thought.

      We have been brought [through the blood and the cross] into Him, into His perception of mankind as accepted in Love through Jesus the Son, not merely made His handiwork for a job here. We now are heirs by Spirit of all that is His Son in Himself. We can know it as life by faith in that truth. He is sovereign yes, we are created, but now we exist in His person in spirit according to His declaration. "Being made free from sin, you are the servants now of righteousness' Rom 7:6a. He Christ Jesus is our Godly representation by the Fathers plan. We may experience this new life by faith only. We are set aside with/in His Son [in heaven] by the Father, at His right hand. Thereby releasing us from the great loss of Adam's garden; making a new mind and outlook possible as we sojourn here. All this has been accomplished by Spirit and we now though in the flesh live by His loving grace, just where He has positioned us by faith and by spirit/thought only. This is the only life a Christian has. Praise His name forever! How then may we recognize and then live this redeemed life in experience here and now?

      Resistance to the new Spirit life is the natural function of the first man as the earthly Adam creature we are. We simply must feel things to know they are real, or so we think. But non-resistance is the key to knowing His power as life. As we first come too desperately need a new life, and then form it by trusting Him we may develop, by the Holy Spirit, a new consciousness or spirit; we must as the old one is dead to God. "Seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage" Rom. 7:6b. If we are living or abiding naturally in the old personality we will be held to the prison of the ego or form. We, in this case, are not free but controlled by the ego's unconsciousness or what is the driving force of the flesh naturally moving forward for self satisification. This is the function of the mind in it's natural form and just as Adam was living in a cursed self centered world we have inherited his ways being in his likeness. "Sin is in the flesh". How will we escape?

      The Father has provided a way by His Word to form a renewed mind. "For you surly know that what is genuine in you faith produces a patient mind that endures" James 1:3. But first, or along the way, we must abandon any confidence we have in the world or the flesh.  Experiencing weakness, in the suffering loss of any confidence in our actions, or any accomplishment on our part, must be present to approach the new spiritual creation life of the new mind, as prescribed by the Father in His Word. As a mater of fact the Holy Spirit will see to [weakness] it in order too form us into the spiritual image of Christ Jesus The Son; a mental acquisition of the Spirits function, as seen from the Fathers view, for a heavenly eternal life, wholly on His terms, starting here and now held by us first in knowledge then by faith. The likeness is found in our fellowship in His suffering as His Cross opens the door to life. "Seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage" Rom 7:6a.

      But alas the modern institutional churches seem to be occupied with making the flock comfortable in their natural earthly state. Not teaching our sanctification from it [the sin nature] in Christ Jesus : "For He is our sanctification". Little seems to be known or taught that we are found only in a all new heavenly spiritual nature all of Christ, which we may acquire by the Word and faith only. All of which is based upon the foundation of faith in another's life and actions, a learned acquisition of the mind. Namely that of a spiritual life that is all of Christ Jesus alone; whom we look to as a object for our living of that life, not for a example to follow, but in total trust of a present identity by Spirit in Him established forever. All held in place by not regarding any value in our feelings and the actions of our earth dwelling personality, which is the old dead nature.

      Because we all have been conditioned to respond to the old form, content and action, the church usually teaches from the old testament and the first three books of the new as the gospel [good news] for the flocks reassurance and comfort. However these verses are addressed to man on the earth or form, [they are to us not for us] and the law always applies at that strata. Paul taught only His newly reveled gospel. A heavenly [spiritual] application free from the Law, which was the all new revelation of Spirit and a all new never before reveled way to God. Not found in old books nor applied to us directly in first three new ones . A new way was reveled after The Acts not only to know God but to actively be of Him in nature; by the faith we may find in Paul's teachings; that we have been transferred and newly created into His Spirit, by and within His Son. May we all find the new way and thereby enter into conscious eternal life starting now! "Study to show yourself approved".

IN HIS SIGHT

      No man ever rises higher than his alter, that is, he can only be for Christ here in the measure in which he knows Him where all the glory of the Father rests on Him, 2 Cor. 4:6. Christ Jesus was after all rejected from the earth. Yes its true He sent His Spirit back here to dwell within His believing children.  But we must come to know that this work of the Holy Spirit was not to remind us by our deeds and emotions or developed traditions of who we are, but to empower us to reject the flesh and the world just as He did. And now by that mental process of rejection, and the embracing of faith in Him as the object of our own representation before God we may find ourselves where He is; in faithful spiritual heavenly fellowship with Him. This statement while biblically true is hard to grasp. Why? "For we walk by faith NOT by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7

      Because we are creatures of the earth that's why! We will always seek its supply as that is our nature. That is why Christians are so caught up in mimicking the world and still seem to remain satisfied. This was certainly not God's intention in His Word's inspiration guiding us in the separate life through His new man identity creation we are called too. "That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels [us] of mercy Rom. 9:23. So how then may we please Him in this earthly life and Honor His intent for us, as new heavenly/spiritual creatures, fellowshipping with the Father together?

      Again and always,  and as featured in my last blog, its the Cross consideration that leads the way to His life for us here on earth. And the fellowship of His sufferings, being made [finished and complete] conformable unto death" Phil. 3:10. As Paul taught; first we must encounter the active side of His Cross; weakness suffering loss and our natural mans death as a done deed. And also to see no value in this world or its affairs toward a godly sanctification. Then and only then do we enter on the objective side or positional [where He has placed us in His Son], which means the finished work of Christ. Which brings us to the subjective or experiential side, in our realization of just who we have become in Him, held there by faith only for the experience of His new creature life. "Has made us alive together [He the object of life] with Christ" Eph. 2:5. So how may we live His heavenly/spiritual life [all of faith] if we do not know His thoughts of us, our identification made by His Cross and His Resurrection, we included? It's Impossible outside of faith and the mindful apprehension of what He has made us too be. The requirement being need, weakness and rejection of this world and our very nature as earth dwellers.

      Within all beleivers there is a natural consequence of his flesh, his sinful behavior and thoughts, which produces quilt. We all seek to allay it. Guilt is really a painful hunger for harmony.... a need to compensate for one's own sin seeking volition, to restore balance add consistency, to restore and to align one's behavior with his beliefs. God has allowed this for His purpose's, to move us toward Him and the awareness of a new life. Which only the weakness of the Cross can expose. This is the unescapable consequence of the earth dweller in order to find His life within.

      The Christianity we are often exposed too however seems to teach that God's Son became man to repair, rehabilitate and improve the natural Adam man of the earth or the first man. But the Word of God does not in any way teach this. It shows us that the first man [us] was set aside in judgement by a new Man of a new order and that new Man is now according to God His beloved representative Man before Him. He represents us, God's only view of us. Therefore "it is finished" for the first man the earth dweller. As He has said we are "hid in Christ in God. This is our status and the truth which we must learn to grasp in order to honor Him. Few do however as our churches have not taken up the banner of our identification in Christ having replaced it with good works and traditions.

      Most people define themselves through the content of their lives. Whatever they perceive, experience or feel is the content, the self defining reality. Content is what absorbs most Christians attention entirely and that is why many of our churches have become simply works, service and entertainment centers for cultural improvement; as it stimulates man and makes him feel as if he belongs. But it just creates a false identity.

      However we must not be deceived by thinking the human mind can form any idea of any trait of the new Man Christ Jesus by imitation or experiential emotions. No we must look entirely to Him in faith in order to understand the Man of God's pleasure. Who displays us before Him in Glory. He Christ Jesus is the beginning of the new creation and we are seen in Him and only Him. It is not in Adam the worker [the old man] that we are seen but in His beloved Son. To know this requires something spiritual only provided by the loss of reliance upon content. Thus in contents loss of value we create the need for reliance upon Him only.

      What is this new Man then and who are we within Him? We know if we contemplate our life what we are not....acceptapable to Him as our selves. Yes we may learn to repeat words that stimulate emotions. But knowing ourselves as contained wholly within Him is another matter all together. Who we have been made into cannot be learned by any effort of the human mind including scriptural study. Then how do we find what we are in the New Man? It is by association in fellowship with God in a heavenly life faith conception or God's view. The adoption of a renewed mind toward a spirit life of faith with Christ Jesus as the object and nothing else ever! By these thoughts the Holy Spirit may conform us to His image as we grow by His Word with a new identity as example.

      You will receive that which corresponds with Him; as you are with Him in thought. "Having put on the new man" Eph. 4:24. This truth is addressed to the believer who is in conscious union and personal fellowship, in his new position and identity, which is held in Christ Jesus before God, in the heavenlies or the spiritual dimension. In other words our godly existence is found in the mind not in what we do. This biblical identity is seldom taught today, or are we encouraged to seek it, as we are so busy identifying with experience and content, which serves a worldly church in it's quest for cultural change or the enhancement of the earthly Adam man in a enjoyable atmosphere.

      It is only as a individual in weakness will we receive the enlightenment [internal, mindful, Christ identity] needed to live His life. The group dynamic might make one feel he is a part of something bigger than himself, and he is, but it often leaves one in dependence on emotional energy, feelings and developed traditions/works when depended upon. Which does not contribute to spiritual maturity. For the growing spiritual man identified internally in Christ has left his ego behind and is less outward, as he matures in faithful knowledge of who he actually is in the eye's of the Father. "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended [God's view] of Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:12. 

THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CROSS

      Which cross will we chose is most reveling; that of the external is surly a most valued expression, that is, "Christ died for our sins". But beyond His gracious action on our behalf is another element of His Cross, the internal action impetrated by Spirit and faith. That we may be.... " always delivered unto death for Jesus sake" 2 Cor. 4:11, a gift to His children by grace. The announcement of His internal work, His cross and its effect upon us. "That He might deliver us from this evil age according to the will of God our Father" Gal. 1:4. What does that bible truth men in our Christian life?

      The Christians embrace of the death of self as implied and directed in God's Word. Few understand the internal blessing of the cross in a intellectual and faithful sense never knowing a deliverance from what they are in the flesh. A Freedom from our sin nature here in this place, made possable by our own faiths accounting of the death of our Adam nature with Christ Himself. Why do we so often miss this doctrine [teaching] in scripture? "Likewise [as Christ Jesus] reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin" Rom:611.

      We tend to occupy our minds with what we once were, [in the flesh] and, apparently [by our sinful life], are not now; or what we ought to be and seem not to be at the moment. Comparing ourselves with ourselves, allowing ourselves to live life in the unconsciousness programed senses of the mind of the flesh is a fatal hindrance to finding present rest in the blessed mind and will [our completed identity and presence before God in Christ] of our Father.

      Spiritually speaking we tend to live unconsciously, in other words we are often just thinking of ourselves, as the explanation of ourselves; which is simply identification with the mind or emotions or what we were; who is the man God judicially declared death unto. These thoughts are the reasons for the profound weakness and worldliness of many Christians and the apparent need for our churches to act as cultural fellowship and social centers which happily cater to the profound self-centered neediness of the modern man. "God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I to the world" Gal. 6:14.

      Very few seem to know that the spiritual nature or the spiritual life is simply a knowledgeable recognition of the mind of God toward us as explained in scripture; any other source is simply invalid in explanation. His internal Cross and its application too us found there is all of faith and is found in knowing of Christ's propitiation as a representative of mankind or substitution, a replacement for us in The Fathers mind; as He has deemed the natural Adam man dead within His Son's sacrifice. A strictly judicial measure freeing us judicially for Him to acquire us into His perfection eternally.

      We are  inclusive [spiritually] co-presence [known by faith], as described in the Word by that act. "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit" Rom. 8:9. We have been spiritually incorporated into One who is not here, but in Heaven. Which we practically enjoy by faith only. The learning to trust in scriptural knowledge is all important to honor Him. What we are in God's mind is found in Him [Christ Jesus] only as His Word commands. Never in who we think we are, ought to be, or what we do! Why can we not see this weakness of character is usually simply our own spiritual ignorance. "But I see another law in my members [flesh] warring against the law of my mind [what I know I should be] and bringing me into captivity of the law of sin" Phi; 1:21; Rom. 7:23.

      Yes the Spirit is working in all believers at all times. But many think because they have the truth [the external cross] that they are in practical reality of the Christian life. No not necessarily, as God has made it so the Holy Spirit is yielded to as the Cross, with its crucifixion of the flesh and the world, has become the attitude of the heart.. Oh we may know scripture even reckon on its truth, but there is no growth into His internal Cross beyond the measure of the Holy Spirit's work in us. And the Holy Spirit is given power over life's circumstance by making known the Cross with its internal crucifixion [the reckoning by faith of our own death with Him] of the flesh and the world. However in God's grace provision only great weakness on our part [need] will show us the way to a life of freedom from the flesh. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me 2 Cor. 12:9.

      The Cross of Christ and its true meaning is almost never taught in churches today. Why? Because first of all it is offensive. The truth seems to be [by my observation] that most teachers do not even know its reality internally in there own lives, so how can they ever share it? The love we could have for the savior and all that He has given is often captured by our former course of life, or our pre-programed flesh mind. We have left His thoughts in a closed unstudied and dusty bible, leaving it to our old nature to decide its meaning, what we feel and think, to guide the way. Therefore we remain external, dependent upon the Cross for salvation and comfort but not for life.

      Those who expect the work of God [the Cross of His Son] to be considered in a earthly way do not know the mind of the Father. They have not learned how He considers them by the death of His Son as a internal work. Therefore He must disrupt any attempts to settle here in the mind of the flesh. Because in God's reckoning we have nothing here, all is of the internal spirit, all is heavenly, all is spiritual. Any service or works must emanate from that mind [heavenly positional identification] or remain earthly and of no true godly value.

      As we increase our knowledge and apprehension of His internal work there is a constant sense that we are not practically up to what we have received. Hence the enjoyment of fellowship and the fulfillment of service is not the measure of the Christian life. It is the way we surmount the difficulties in our path, and not the enjoyment of the truth, which defines our position and identification. This internal Cross work is only known and maintained by a diligent and studious pursuit. Alas few will pursue this path and it is seldom taught as the requirement is.... "always being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake". 2 Cor. 4:11.

   

FINDING OUR PLACE IN HIM

      "Now faith is the assurance [the confirmation, the title deed] of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of the reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses] Heb. 11:1.

      God's explanation of the thing [faith] which is required to approach Him goes much deeper than most suppose. Christians usually connect faith with their own self, how it makes them feel and act is often the translator. Few actually look beyond their own concerns. This is only natural, as all that is of God is reveled by Spirit so then it must be perceived by spirit and men have self limited themselves in this area due to their own selfish introspection. Men have a very hard time with a faith concept as their awareness is wrapped up in themselves and their surroundings.

      The key to understanding His Faith is in the knowing of our assurance of it. Man is predisposed to thoughts of his ego or self as to the defining quality of his life's meaning, again this is only natural. So how do we find the life He has for us within the faith realm? Well first we must come not only to know who we are by the Word of God but most importantly who we are not before Him, or who He has made us to be anew. A exclusive faith perception requiring a new mind which sees a new man, represented in Christ as example. We now are a completely new creature in God's own faith toward His Son, altogether, us inclusive in His contemplation of Christ Jesus.

      This assurance or new perception is discovered as we become disenchanted with who we are in light of the scriptural explanation of who He says we are too be within His Son. In other words our own failure to be what we think and the Word says we should be as Christians. If we are satisfied with our current status we have already been defeated and missed His mark. Happiness, good social fellowship, service and tradition, if relied upon as a defining quality, are a misleading indicator of our Christianity and is simply often a cultural phenomenon.

      Awareness by faith, as a power to define being, is concealed in the present moment. The ultimate purpose of God's action on earth and in heaven, on our behalf, is so that we might contain a new identity, as power and action, on earth to glorify Him. If we are not in the present moment a new creation in our mind, as taught by His Word, then we are confined to the self centered ego programed in the self conscious inner man. Only presence in His new life as a defining quality can free us from this ego-centric control. As a matter of fact presence in a new self perception, made for us by God, found by faith, will undo the past in us and thus transform our state of consciousness toward His will to become the image of His Son Christ Jesus, His design for us from the beginning.

      This is a spiritual realization. Not the belief that we are spirit, that's simply a thought. Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think, or feel is ultimately not who I am. That I cannot find myself in all those things which pass away. As a matter of fact Jesus said it best "Deny yourself" or negate [and thus undo] the illusion that we as self acting, self centered individuals, can please God in any way what so ever.

      When God said He was "I Am" and His Son inferred that He was that same "I Am" on earth; He was saying that His essential identity was contained within His perfect all powerful presence as the God and creator of the universe. We by inheritance have access, through the veil, to His holiness by Grace, making us also incorporated in the great I Am of God by acquiring a sense of our essential godly identity as consciousness itself. But first must come need and then comes the trudging the long road of happy destiny. Few have the patience or endurance to make use of that worldly seemingly unrewarding process though.

      How we prepare ourselves for the trip is all paramount to serving Him. Yes it's His road but we must read the signs along the way. Most Christian seem to be happy with the status quo. In other words they live and take their cues from the world and thus are relegated to the old inner ego man of the past. Only weakness and suffering will guide them to the turning. Be assured it will come, as God's intent for us, as fallen men and women, is held in the imagine [death] of His crucified Son. His judicial provision for His children, resulting in a new hope of; "I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge [who and what He is and we have become by the word] of Christ Jesus, my Lord" Phil. 3:8.

      Form and experience are the cause of the Christians lack of emancipation from the world system. Holding us back by the powerful force of our inner man in his pursuit of ego fortification. All that had gone on before the cross was based in Law and tradition, man was entirely destined to the earths requirements before the relief [our co-death as natural Adam men] of His Cross became available.

      It seems clear that a great rectification was needed for the early Christians, as most of Paul's letters to them were of a corrective nature. They did not seem to know that they we freed from the requirements of form by a new administration of Spirit, which heretofore had never existed as a indwelt Spirit. Paul's efforts were to educate them and be a example to them of a new life which was wholly formless, a spiritual life of thoughts based on the faith in the accomplishment of another. The early church wasted little time in rejecting Paul's positional/identification teaching and they still do today as most efforts are of a cultural nature. The roman government church was the leader in our modern methods and we still follow it's example, despite the Reformation. Which was not really a change but a attempt to improve something already in existence as the word reformation connotes.

      There are many things necessary to conform the image of the Christian into that of Christ Jesus and our God will see to its doing. Suffering pain weakness all conspire to place us in a position to better see the death of our old nature. The Word is the only sure guide to a new platform, from which to place our reliance upon a new nature. After we see the desperate loss in our own self, to be anything to the Father [including culture reform and service], we have a chance to find the new man in our self through His Grace and a new identity by faith. The moment we become aware of the old man or the ego's control the emerging awareness comes to light as to who we are beyond the ego. The true identity of Christ within us. The recognition [observation] of the false old man or ego is the paramount contributor to the arising of the true new nature. "If any man suffer as a Christian, let Him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this [the sufferings] behalf" 1 Pet. 4:16.

HIS LIFE HERE NOW

      The attitude of your mind, as to being open to a new identification in Christ, is everything!  But if that is true then what does it mean for the Christian? And.... if I indeed have a opportunity for a new and specific Godly identification, a conscious assessment of a personal and intelligently biblical faith based newly actualized world view, reflecting a new character, as a result of that new identification; then what am I to do with it? How do I act? These and many more questions have been the bane of my existence this last few years. Since I began that is to identify with the bibles [Paul's] teaching as to the all important need for the Christian to think of himself in a radically new way, as to his personal being. None other than the very identification of Christ Himself. As we are told by Paul of our new creation status; "And having put on the new man [our identity of/in Christ Jesus], that is renewed in knowledge [as we take to heart His Word] after the image of Him [Christ] that created him [the Adam man]" Col. 3:10.

      After having discovered myself once again living a defeated Christian life I prayed for God's intervention, give me death or a new life I cried out. He answered with life. I found I just had to work harder at its maintenance in my thoughts of my newly discovered Christian life's identity, in order to take advantage of God's Grace. Seek to see the man who He has made me to newly be. The need for this continual pursuit may be the result of my Adam nature as a committed earthling always suffering loss, therefore always in need. Or maybe just my great propensity toward sin is the cause. No matter the motivation, lo and behold I found within my search, something hidden but there all along, a biblical teaching, a truth that is; "God is Spirit and true worship of Him must be done in spirit" John 4:24. It is now my souls pursuit to gain a self explainable life, within my personnel new creature identification, just as His Word directs, so I must as we all.... " Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth" Col. 3:2. One in spirit with Him by simply knowing His personal identification applied to me, as commanded for us by Himelf. But how will this be manifested in my earthly physical life's expatiations is always a difficult to process?

      It is not a emotion or a feeling I have learned, but a longing inspirited by faith and the Words promise. I must find Him. He must define my life. We all know that in human life we take great pleasure having concentrated on and achieved something in the pursuit of goals. This is somewhat the same as my spiritual Godward pursuit. Only the motivation I've discovered is not a mental or physical reward to enjoy here, but a all consuming faith in a current life of being one with God regardless of the circumstance on earth. This I learned can be done if one will rest in the biblical declaration to be obedient to faith as in the "law of life found in the Spirit of Christ Jesus". Really our only rule if you will. It is a spiritual life not a life of form although there are moral and constructive physical results emanating from my new attitude. But the Spirit life can never be defined by physical resulted actions alone even though our current Christian culture seems to tells us it is. As we tend to seek a reward.

      Then what does this spiritual life consist of? That's just it, it's formless and its entirely of the mind. We humans have a very hard time with this concept as we always want felt results. Yet it is the biblical true thought we are described as being in as new creations in Christ by His Word. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" Phil. 2:5. When we associate the spirit life with form we are instantly defeated as we have identified with the physical, remember God is Spirit. God had done away with form as to our presence before Him, in His Son's representative work upon the cross. " That I may know Him being made conformable [God's defining image of us] unto [just as if] His death Phil. 3:10. I know its hard to take this sort of concept to the bank as we are trained constantly to engage the physical. We all identify with results and feelings. That's why spiritual thoughts as structure and definition of our Christian life are usually not discussed in a institutional environment like churches. No one can easily identify to a formless concept of the Christian life, as their actual true life as a Christian. Simply put we are ignorant of Paul's teaching on the subject by default to the deep human need for ego fulfillment. In other words we do not trust God's Words to Christians long ago, which also apply today. When He tells us of some, perhaps much like us, who He dealt with quite directly when He said: "for I bear them witness that they have zeal for God but not according to knowledge". Rom. 10:2.

      Then we might ask what am I to do? How do I serve Him, even know Him. There are two things which must transpire in our mind first. One, we must come to know that we are made suitable to His formless life by the degree of separation we have from the order and influence of things here: a mental acquiescence to His truth; a knowledgeable observation of who we really are in God's mind. "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" Phil. 1:11. Secondly our minds new conformity to Christ must dominate our perceived being. A position which is acquired in His presence only; by faith in the Word's proclamation of this very truth. "Unto Him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end" Eph. 3:21. This heavenly place is found by a intelligent faith only, toward our acceptance of our suitably to God, made by His Son in representation as our very person before Him where He is in Glory. A heavenly or spiritual existence he has given us in grace, a formless manifestation we my partake of in our mind. A new concept or identity He has prescribed for us in His very thoughts of us. But will we accept His view of His Son as the Christian life and be satisfied? Few do! "But rejoice, inasmuch as you are a partaker of Christ's suffering" 1Peter 4:3.

      The thing that sets man apart often is the showing of moral superiority. Others recognize those   who display a different attitude, perhaps by there countenance, quietness and passive rest, but most often their gusto. And that is well and good. But for the man of the earth he has lost his former communion with the Father as flesh, and his attempts to show a life of faith defined by the natural i.e. works and tradition will never do as a godly qualification. We so easily fall victim to the natural life in our Godward pursuit. We were made for God but we tend to turn away. But now through grace we are all new despite ourselves. We and others may now see that new creation, as we are before Him, by being, "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us". As we maintain that image, not in figure or imitation, but defined in Christ the new Man as our object and life. Shown us by His Grace in Spirit occupying our self image. We must always seek to be renewed in knowledge of Him to gain His Spirit life. That is in growing intelligence as to recognition of our new being just as the Father see us in the Son. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" Heb. 10:22

      Few Christians can see clearly beyond their natural needs enough to understand that what took place upon the Cross and later in their mind/spirit in accepting Him was a result of  a strictly Judicial action by God, not a mental/physical transformation to be applied to man. We were pronounced renewed judicially not changed as men. Yes changes come, feelings are exposed. But many unfortunately suppose the new freedom, feelings and peace in them is the defining quality of the Christian life alone. Also many do not know that by service and works alone nothing is or even can be accomplished for God ever; as Adam in the flesh is beyond redemption. No our true life is "hid in Christ in God" the only place where we can by made acceptable. And we know it and show it in thought or identity by a attitude of a new life of a intelligent faithful perception. Our life is to be dominated by the knowledge of Christ Jesus and what and who He is to the Father in our stead before Him in Glory. A judicial application that changes us in God's perception is our new position we hold in His Glory. All else [works, service etc.] to follow. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" Heb. 10:19.

      It is only through awareness of the position we have before God that the Christian can see the all consuming spiritual totality we are held in in the Son. We have been transformed into the Person of Christ Jesus in the Fathers judgment. All else is a limited perspective binding the Christian to his natural needs and the earth's systems. We will find that it is in Him, not ourselves, that we have a life of joy and freedom in the very place of the Beloved One, in the very heart and presence of the Father. Conscious communion with God made dependent by a practical abiding or conscious positional identification in Christ accomplished by keeping His commandment to have faith in the new creation we are in Him, and thus the opening to the judicial recognition that the old self, the flesh, must be reckoned as dead just as the Word declares. "Without faith [in a specific truth] it is impossible to please God". "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding".

      "The flesh", in scripture, is a expression meaning the whole of our Adamic nature in its present condition under the power of sin. It include our whole being, spirit, soul, and body. After the fall God said man is flesh [Gen 6:3] and that is our condition today. But the Word says "They that are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh". This is a thing that has been done not a thing to be done. Simply put, the thing we are to believe about ourselves is that our Adam man is dead in God's eye's. The accomplished position we hold in freedom from the flesh is God's placement of us within His thoughts in the work of the Cross. In other words God has arranged it so that we may by; " Knowing this, that our old man [flesh Adam man] has been crucified with Christ" be free from sin and it's egocentric internal compus. Our only hope for the Christian life as life is living in the faith of these Words. Held there by the Grace of His identification in which we are positioned in, in Him [Christ Jesus] before Him, [The Father] in Glory. No feelings/ego involved. It is not us or anything which we might do or believe that make us heavenly spiritual creatures in His thoughts of us, it is all of Him! Only a intelligent faith will find His heavenly positional life in this place as a life here.

OCCUPYING HIS PLACE

      "Both He that sanctifies and those that are sanctified are all one" Heb. 2:11.

      "The more clearly [intelligently] we enter by faith unto objective truth, or what is true of us as to the sanctification unto the Lord, the deeper, more experiential and practical will be the Spirit's subjective work in us, and the more complete will be the magnification of the moral effect in our life and character".

      I suspect that the problem or lack of arrival to know the moral effect of Christ Jesus' Life arises for most of us Christians in the desire for a manifestation of a experience in our Christian lives. That is our natural weakness, the desire to feel something. Especially the expatiations brought on by actions; which is simply our natural self's reaction to what we as a culture have come to depend upon as Christianity's function to create changes on the earth. Paul had the same problem to shed, which he came to terms with in finding that. "It is no longer I that live, but it is Christ that lives in me" Gal. 2:20.

      As for myself I have been somewhat relieved from experiences dependence as the very explicit biblical teaching [Rom. 6,7,8] of position and identification has made a impact in the formation of a new creature conscience in my thoughts. So as not to be so in reliance on things done here. Of course I know that I am a hopeless sinner in the flesh, needy and ever seeking a feeling, as we all do. Yet the Lord has given me a new life of Spirit to contemplate, its just not defined by tradition, experience or feelings. It is now my privilege [due to knowledge] to allow the Holy Spirt to conduct His thoughts in my mind as to my presence [spiritual positional identity] within Christ Jesus. I firmly believe this is the Christian Spiritual life/identity which must come first before my service and fruit can be honorable to approch the Father's great and profound sacrifice in His Sons representation of us on the cross. A Work that has transferred me spiritually to a new life in faith of His intent for me. "Whereby it is given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these [faith in them] we might be partakers of the divine nature".

      I believe we will never learn any truth by experience except if it be in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the experience. The desire for personal satisfaction is the main cause for a weakness of spirit in the believer. Also the repetitions of doctrine or dogmas and traditional rites of performance is in no way a contributor necessarily to personal fellowship with the person of Christ Jesus. No these things, while useful perhaps, do not cause us to know Him in and of themselves. We must come to see Him within a new mindful concept of His life as our very own, a spiritual life conducted in acknowledged weakness; in the taking of all things, good and bad, as connected with Him. Things not marked for our enjoyment of a experience, even things which arrive in personal pain. But too know Him as life through a new revelation of our new creation spirit found by faith in His Word. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" Rom. 8:2. Paul's freedom declared here is from his natural Adam personality or his desperate need to accomplish good works on the earth.

      "The passive power of faith needs for its sustenance closer communion with the father than its active [tradition, emotions, feelings] energy." We will find His life in the quiet endurance of weakness and suffering. The patience of accepting wrong and loss in this world. A rest of faith within despite circumstance. His life and identity known and viewed in us by God is our identity. A determined mental position we may rely upon based on knowledge, held privately in faiths true divine power. The same power was also found in His Son as a Man on the earth. We must come to identify with His Son in solitude and for that we need more than words or doctrine but a new mind. "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" 2 Cor. 6:10 

      Most Christians don't inhabit a living reality in consciousness of Christ's life as their own as the bible tells us to. "According to His divine power He has given all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue" 2 Pet. 1:3. Most of us have a conceptualized Christian identity, one learned by repetition and church culture. We are drawn by displays which feed our needs as natural men because we often have learned no other alternative. We become captured by the worlds influence on all things here. However true Christianity, as life, is found in the formation of a new mind. The Word is very clear on this truth. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" Rom 12:1-2. Why then are we so held back from His life as so clearly described in His Word?

      We have all heard of the Placebo effect. Placebo is Latin for I shall please. That is much of what the world has provided for the natural Adam mans mind in his orientation, including Christian practices. We must be made to feel good and right about something, even protected from evil, pain and suffering. We Christians as a group desire the same thing as the world dweller, a happy prosperous life announced by planed actions. This innate desire is why the Placebo effect so dominates our culture and so successfully impales Christian awareness.

      There is only One who can make our Christian lives experiential of Spirit and that is Christ Himself. The experience He provides however is found in the faithful observance of all things in the light of a living Person including our very identity. We must set our minds eye on things here from a heavenly perspective held in knowledge of the Words direction for the believer toward a personal private relationship with Him where He is now. A mental exercise or change of mind which no liturgical observation of itself will accomplish. "Set you affections on things above, NOT on things on the earth" Col. 3:2.

      It is by having the Lord Jesus in glory before us as the object of our souls in everything practically. Him interjected in all our life's actions as our defining life will give the power of His truth to our daily lives. How may we know this spiritual/heavenly position though? It is merely by observation. We must come to know that the old mans nature is wrapped up in the ego or the self conscious. This inner man will always whisper our sins, guilt and inadequacies toward holiness [separation from the world]. We become captured by the programed old mans thoughts. But as we come to know who we really are ["Hid in Christ in God"] and believe that His description of us is true, we may by observance arrive above our old thoughts and personality, or the souls rule. Through knowledge and faith a new man is growing inside of us, the new creation of active Spirit, our image found in Christ. There is no higher place than that of Christ Jesus as our personal identification. This is His definition of us, God's view. May we strive to glorify Him in His place as ours, the place He designed for us to occupy with a new mind. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ Jesus lives in me" Gal. 2:20.

MOVING FORWARD

      Its been sometime since I last put up a blog. I had two blogs in draft form and they both somehow were deleted from my google blog site..... So I was a little discouraged. What was the reason for the loss of something I had worked on for so long I asked Him? I elected to take some time off to contemplate on what I might learn from such a loss.

      What I came to discover was that much of my writing was done to please me not the Lord. My ego became inflamed, I was lighting my own fire. Also my old friend resentment sprang from within. I found I was enjoying making condemning remarks toward the organized church and even toward my Christian readers. I have learned that until I can approach my thoughts with the identification of the Lord in mind I needed to step away. I pray that He has added new light to my way during my hiatus and I also ask for you my dear blog victims forgiveness. Ill try again, perhaps on a new blog site which will not delete my work. Until then I leave you with these words.

      Faith is not sustained in one act we must continue forward in His word to gain a inner identification as His own. He is not found in strength but in weakness. The voice of our inner man is always dominated by our ego which seeks strength for feeding to justify its presence. This is the biblical old man who was annulled in His sight upon the Cross.

      The new man is only present by faith, hence the all importance of processing our thoughts of Him filtered through His truth and our own weakness. There is no other philosophy which will provide the living God as personal identification than that of knowing and striving to gain the new creation life through His written word alone. Others can add incite even provide a ladder to His heights of understanding but none can come close to His Holy Word... Too be continued.

ONLY BY SPIRIT

      The truth, the light of scripture, is taught received and treated all too often simply as information to soften life's turmoil. Our Adamic mind sees it as fresh air yes, even beautiful, but in the earth mans mind and ego he lacks the light to view His Word as life apart from seeking comfort, at least without the Words spiritual enlightenment. Why is this?  Because our inner self-centered thoughts hold sway over all that we may appraise, which intern determines our self identity; by those self-centered thoughts. Which are then most often sought to address our earthly needs. The reason for this is we are not convinced by faith alone that we are to apply His Word as the very life within us, a perfect life, a spiritual life, a new identity entirely. That of Himself, Christ Jesus!

     We do not know, and most have never learned, or been taught, that we have been transformed into new beings simply by His will. A truth which is only made know to us by His Word. It teaches about a new life for us, in the Fathers eye's, which is applied to His Son, as our new life's representation, in His eyes. We are in Him by spirit or thought, God's thought of us, a new creation. But first we must, to live this new life of freedom, become able to re-identify with our actual presence within Christ just as the Father sees us there, a new position of a Christ identified spirit. As Paul said; "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me" Phil.3:12.

      Unless our new creation life is filtered by a intelligent faith however we have little chance of a positive re-identification of and in Christ's Spirit, as we lack clarity of who we really are. True most know we will never manifest His likeness and grow to the full status of His accomplishment in our earthly form yet works prevail within institutional Christianity. But not enough is known of His Spiritual truth; that we can grow to the measure of His fullness [conformed to the image of Christ] in the form of a new consciousness of spirit or thought. Or so the Word tells us, and thereby altering how we think of ourselves. It does little good for a pastor to teach about the Spirit without first teaching the new creation identity, as so thoroughly taught by Paul in Romans ."And we all, who with unveiled faces [having spiritual knowledge] contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit". 2 Cor. 3:18

      Unfortunately many who listen to the teachers encouraging message are content with the first glow, have settled into a comfortable place, or have simply compromised with the world; or worse they struggle greatly and expect Him or hope He [God] will make everything better. They ask Him that they might feel something new or good, a emotion, or perhaps that they may just behave properly.

      The problem is one of nature. We want a new life, expect a new life, but are loath to pay the price to receive it by the biblical perception of death to all that is of the earth. We seek Him with our own strength hoping to be a better man. What we simply will not do is struggle, even wrestle like Jacob, until blessed: thus redefining ourselves. But in order to become our true being the mentally conditioned Adam ego must be set aside; for a life of dependence and confidence, all provided only by faith in what He has said of us as identified within His Son. There is nothing, no other thing given for our spiritual provision, to know His life inwardly than that! "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of [Adam identification] slavery" Gal. 5:1

      The lack we have in our Christian life to meet Him in a spiritual heavenly life is not however due to the circumstances of our life or even poor teaching, but the conditioning of our mind. We approach all that He has given with the ego, the Adam mind, the man of the earth who always wishes for more. This is our nature and cannot be done away with, while we occupy these bodies at least. So what must we do?

      We must come to know our earthly consciousness as just that, of the earth. Then reach out in a intelligent faith to find our grace given true path or the new man we are by spirit. Paul clears the way in Romans 5,6,7, and 8; we are to have no conscience of sin what so ever in our new creation mind. In other words we as Adam men of the earth are annulled in the Fathers sight. This is God's desire for us His children. How can that be when we know full well [so subject too] what we are by condition?

     Really it involves surrender; not to a story of what we have done are what we are in the flesh but to a reality of who and what we are before God and what He has done for us wholly within His Son. We must discover in and of ourselves, we are completely unacceptable to God. Yet He has accepted us by Grace. His acceptance being within the personhood exclusively of His perfect Son. So our acceptance of our unacceptableness is a surrender given us by grace; so that we might apprehend our freedom before Him, within the identity of His Son. How is this accomplished?

      First we must take into account the Illusion of form, the doing, and its effect upon us as Adam men of the earth. Paul has encouraged us to make a shift from identification with form...the thought or emotion...to one of being. Recognizing ourselves [by weakness suffering and Adams recognized death] as that which has no form; we are after all only seen in spirit in the Fathers contemplation as a new spirit creation, no form required. We must on a human level surrender to faith, a trust in the unseen but established by a intelligent belief in His Word. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, [the Adam identity] and I to the world" Gal. 6:14.

      Sometimes surrender also means giving up trying to understand each and every doctrine, and even remembering scripture; which is often done in a attempt to make our retention of words into a ground to self prove His grace. Really perhaps even a form of self-righteousness. Or the reliance on dogmas [firmly held positions] which often simply serve to bolster our self confidence and personal felt righteousness. And most importantly our self righteous prepotency to equate duty, morals, works and even biblical intellectual pursuit with a form of godliness. This must be put down to Adams rule and a kingdom [the hope of] on earth in this dispensation. Really what is self righteousness taking form to make us into a justified [self made] Adam man: this being however is a man who can never be present in God's sight, the Adam man of the garden that is. Really the Christian, in his Adamic personality's collusion with the world, cannot abide in fellowship with the Father in any way of honored recognition as to His complete Love. For He is only Glory, found only in Glory, and only by faith, as His children inhabiting the new creation we are seen in perfection in God's view of His Son. This is our faith proved identity. "Your life is hid with Christ in God" Col.3:3.
     
      The Christian today walks often in a spilt personality of sorts. On the one hand he has the Spirit of God within [in his salvation] on the other it is himself who prevails. We are occupied with a mental image of ourselves formed by ego, no other living creature, plant or animal is so restricted. Effectively by denying our life's identification as that of Christ solely by faith, we will succumb to being dominated by form; what we are as Adam men. The problem is found in our thoughts not solved by our actions.

      When we perceive our spiritual life though pre-programed thinking of form and experience we cannot sense nor do we have the intuition to know the difference between our pre-programed Adam thoughts and God's new thoughts of us. We are relegated to form, content, feelings in that natural strata. We have really reduced God to a commodity who regulates our presence on earth, our feelings and experiences. However this is far from the Godly perception which we are encouraged to adopt by His Word, entirely by faith.  ^"Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God" 2 Cor.3:5.

      Faith is designed by God to bring about a shift from the conceptual world of material and form. Leaving behind dependence upon the minds pre-programed images, which are always dominated by thoughts of oneself and things of the earth. But by faith we enter a realm of the un-preconditioned consciousness, as His thoughts, in true effective definitive action, are all of the unseen and Spiritual. Entirely inclusive of us within His Love for His Son. This is Spirit and has no worldly [natural mans condition] defining properties at all. " I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, [through a new conscious identity] becoming like him in his death" Phil 3:10.

      We have a very hard time with the spiritual because of our Adam creature conditioned status. We were made for the earth. To walk in the Spirit is to have the Lord Jesus as actual source of all that arises in us, all thoughts and feelings as to our true nature and heavenly reality." The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death Rom". 8:2. This law of life is solely relegated to the faith realm, for the Lord Jesus is the only object that can satisfy God or man and He is in Glory, not here.

      If we have a mind with the Fathers thoughts [apprehended only by faith in His Word] we then have a new conscience, one mind with God. We become spirit partakers of the divine, imparted by the Holy Spirit and we now will be capable of entering into the deepest thoughts of God as we read His word with new eyes.

      Our nature will always cling to something present however our wants and need prevail. But in order for the father to unfold His Son in us the father has made it necessary that we suffer within [weak in our worldly identity] our earthly existence in order to walk by Spirit.  We must come to rest in the fact that the Word has told us we have the liberty of heaven even while on earth based upon that very weakness “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me" 2 Cor. 12:9. Our thoughts of ourselves are the key to discovery in Spirit of our true identity!

      The noise of our mind is a barrier to Spirit. If we rest in His nature however, by His Word, in a positional intelligent faith, we may find a new place never visited by most Christians. The sense of separation is cast aside by His power in His thoughts of us when we apprehended them. Let nature be our example it waits quietly, even suffers the storms, with no thought of itself. As we take His place for us in the counting of what He has done in His Son as ours now and forever. It will soon be His thoughts, His conscience, that becomes our life. Who's way will we choose we all must ask ourselves.

     

IN CHRIST

      Most believers remain earth bound in their view and concept of the Christian life, few have spiritual wings to be free as they are tethered to this world in deed and thought.

     It seems, by observation at least, mans accumulated purpose is simply to establish a cultural and a personal reality which suits his expected or perceived present circumstance and worldly needs, in order to please himself or others. Christian are no different in this propensity. But is this God's way, His desire for His Children? "The carnal mind [a mind absorbed by personal and world issues]is enmity against God" Rom. 8:7.

      If a man were really spiritually free what would his relative functional world perception/actions look like? Actually, outside of his inner spiritual concept, probably not much different than those who remain earth bound. Why? Because inherent within the fall of man is his obligation toward sin, "sin is in the flesh". This is our, both Christian and secular mans, unescapable condition. Then where is the peace and joy that is promised by God to His believing children to come from? And why make any effort to rise above the carnal worldly and traditional position most Christians have found their present comfort in?

      The answer is found in the acquiring of the biblical promised spiritual emancipation we all should be seeking of course. Which is discovered first by our weakness and desperate need then a openness to His Spirit, followed by knowledge in the the gathering of a intelligent faith. This sounds simple and direct enough but very few bother to put forth a effort toward these vital and Godly ideologies with their divine spiritual freedom in mind. Why?

      Because they remain satisfied to be earth bound, self-centered, enthralled and occupied by what they see and feel all around them. Seeking fulfillment in the temporary comfort of self-centered feelings, captured. It is simply their self imposed preferred world view, what they know. But God's Word in no way supports this common view, for He declares; "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we also appear with Him in Glory" Col. 3:4.

     But surely we cannot be with Him in the apprehension of our mutual glory without also having His attitude, gaining His insite. That of His own presence before the Father and us inclusive in His place with Him. "God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship [like mindness] of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" 1 Cor. 1:9. Yes this important message [Col. 3:4] is equally a future promise [in glory] and a present position [Who is our life] according to God's Word. But in order to see its fulfillment in the now we must be looking down from Him, God's perspective. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" Phil. 2:5. However most are looking up from themselves, their own mind's perspective. So how and where will we find Him in order to have His view?


      God....has made us alive together with Christ and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Eph 2:4-6. Note we are together with Him, according to the Father. Where? In heaven. This can only be learned as a spiritual faith reality from the Word. We were dead [sin restricted in the fallen Adam race] and now we are alive [in the new spiritual Christ identify or new creation], but only "in Christ". Found in Him by faith, His view revealed.

     In other words we are in Him a new creation [have gained a new mind] by a spiritual all new perception based entirely on the [our] reckoning by faith of the Word's narrative, as to our status before God represented by His Son; this is also God's reckoning. We are there in heaven with Him or so God says "we are citizens of heaven". If this is true then we must redefine ourselves within our very conscience as to our Christian existance. We are to stop praying and lookin upward toward Him from ourselves, ever asking for relief and blessings, and come to see downward from His throne with the eye's of Word based faith. But How can we do this we might wonder?

      The revelation by Paul from the Father tells us. Therefore we must discover what he [Paul] means when he tells us over one hundred times we are in Christ. "For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him"  2 Cor. 5:21. By this new realization, from the Spirit, we will rise above the mere existence in the world of experience and good works where most Christians trod. Our thoughts therefore must change based upon His Word.

      The real life difficulty for us will be to find rest in His full provision for us as ones "in Christ" because of our old identity or thinking. So to pave the way, first must come great need, then a diligent pursuit, and finely a full reliance upon faith in His word by the knowledge of it, or new thoughts. This will make our way clear to see His life. Few will go there however as feelings [present old thoughts] and compliance with the world drowns out their desperate need, and apathy and present circumstances satisfaction hold then down. But for those that have the sacrificial desire [a individual personal approbation steeped in weakness and need] for the discovery of what it means to be "in Christ" there will be a great reward. That of eternal freedom known here and now!

      In order for us to understand what it means to be "in Christ" we turn to Paul's mind as revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word. What does in Christ mean? In Christ Jesus' Words, [John 15:4] He says we are to abide [in thought and concept] in Him. In context in the Greek mind this would mean we are to be fully encompassed, as within a sphere, within Him, a part of Him, partakers making up the whole of Him. This is our present position in God's mind even with no actions of our own. Second Paul uses a certain word as description of our divine status and presence before God; that of being "in Christ" [within His sphere] which connotes the exclusivity of our identification in Him. That word is Pleroma.

      In Colossians we find a Greek word that cannot be translated in the usual sense, as it is relegated to the philosophical [as in search for the truth of life] realm. In English we call this the Pleroma of God. The thought, as expressed by Paul is: In Christ we have the Pleroma [fullness] of God....the idea is that all this fullness dwells in Christ Jesus and may [does] dwell in us by His Spirit and by our dwelling [seeking Him for life's identity in our understanding of who we are] within Him, His sphere of living Spirit. Or "the law of life in Christ Jesus".

      I hope this explanation takes some of the mystery out of the positional and identification  doctrines [Rom. 6,7.8] to make you curious enough to contemplate and perhaps even desire a freedom that only comes by faith in a understood truth. God has made it simple in concept we make it difficult by our action and self-centered expectation's. Rest in the truth my Christian brothers and sisters, He has made our way easy and light. We now may cease from worry and strife as well as alignment with the world. Wait upon His Spirit in your weakness to fulfill your new desire for life with unending joy found only within His sphere, "In Christ".

THE HEAVENLY GOSPEL

      The long and continued attempt to apply Christianity to the world as an aid to it's culture and it's civilization has led to the loss of the spiritual/heavenly appropriation so urged by Paul in his revelation from God to His children. "He Himself equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" Heb 13:21. Over time the aspect of a internal Christian life by Spirit, derived from intelligent and individual biblical faith, has become offensive to many, that is to the "dwellers of the earth". Because many see their primary roll as Christians in a accomplishment on the earth, a interpretation by and of their own feelings, not God's Word.

     The assertions of the heavenly Gospel, the peculiar privileges and special hopes of the Church as explained so thoroughly by Paul to be heavenly [spiritual] in its identification toward us, as that of Christ Himself, have been set aside to promote works and experiences or merely to improve mankind and it's culture. Men of the earth [carnal Christians] think and are taught this is what God wants of them. Urged to become workers before becoming spiritual. "The carnal mind is enmity against God" Rom 8:7.

      The testimony of the Holy Spirt and the sufferings of the Lord and the glories extended to us, in making us new creatures in spirit, have been forgotten by the Christian earth dwellers whom we have been made into by poor teaching and our own attachment to the world. "Therefore, brethren we are debtors bound not to the flesh [works, accomplishment, culture etc.] that we should live after the flesh [but to the Spirit and faith] Rom. 8:12. There is a obvious lack to take into account the spiritual absorbing and heavenly power of His Cross, which has been exchanged for the all absorbing physical, emotional, and experiential power of the earth.

      "They are enemies of the cross of Christ...who set their mind on earthly things" Phil. 3:18,19. "If you then are risen with Christ [have taken on his life by spirit in new birth]...set you affections [minds in the Greek] on things above [spiritual/heavenly], not on the things of the earth" Col. 3:2. These biblical revelations written by Paul to the early Church simply cannot be ignored as fully applicable today, but they are by most. Why?

      The fact of our position as that of being found by the father as only in His Son, by faith in that fact, is not often explored or made clear to the believer. Yes many of us had a foretaste of it's power when we felt the great relief in our first blush of justification/salvation/sanctification, when we were born again. But because of our own institutional church nurtured self centeredness we fail to thoroughly translate the biblical available apprehend truth into a mindful/spiritual definition of our Christianity. Thereby morally affecting our character and walk. We simply do not live, nor are we taught, what we truly are in a spiritual new creation. Which by we might become one with who He is [positioned in Him], in conscious/faithful apprehension; as a personal identification of our divinely defined [God's thoughts of us] character. "Christ who is our life" Col. 3:4.

      The Christian may advance spiritually only by seeing what he really is in Christ, not by trying to be what he hopes or is encouraged to be by his behavior or his feelings. Seeing the accomplished fact of our co-death, co-burial and co-resurrection and ascension with Christ by the Word, ministered by His Holy Spirit to our minds enlightenment, brings us His life. This end is discovered in seeing by faith, not by feelings or working. The only possibility of spiritual progress lies in seeing the truth just as God sees it, the truth concerning Christ, the truth concerning ourselves in Christ, as a faithful image within our mind. "For you died and you life is hid with God in Christ" Col. 3:3. What holds us back?

      The answer lies in our world view! Or who and what we place our personal value in. God and His Word or our own self centered thoughts and those of others we may listen to. We must learn that the Cross has effectively cut our connection to the world and the Resurrection has brought us into a new reality, a new wholly immaterial association above. The world rejected Christ, God exalted Him, and therefore us, as He is the representation of the believer before Him "hid with Christ". Man and the world gave Christ Jesus the very lowest, God ascended Him to Glory. In as much as the believer is in full fellowship with the Fathers thoughts of His Son, by faith in His Word, he is enabled to turn from the world to He who is above; in identification within his own mind and heart, contained in that very same Glory as Christ Himself. "He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:37.. Why is this truth so ignored?

      Because so very few of our church leaders know the meaning of the identification doctrines, as their Christian life, which are so clearly taught in Romans 5,6,7 and 8. They therefore cannot teach or even encourage us to find a growing inner spiritual life by faith in the Word.  Perhaps they have learned the word identification in their academic studies to consider. But because they to often remain in the reformed first man of the earth, experience and feelings, works and law, becomes their apprehension model for the Christian life. They are taken captive by the bread and butter supplied by their institutional obligations and the experiential pleasures so needed by their carnal flock. In short many are simply dwellers of the earth, or carnal. As a result many Christians who claim to believe the Bible is God's Word, do not read it and sadly many never study it. We claim it's God's divinely inspired inerrant message to us, yet despite this, we have not made it or Him our life by His Word in spirit. Why?

     A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day. Few Christians are challenged from the pulpit. Even fewer have any idea of a need for a biblical proper [literal] and constant hermeneutic [a method or theory of interpretation] to study it by. Without which there is little chance to honor God in any in-depth understanding of His Word! Whose fault does this great shame fall upon?

      Yes our leaders have a burden to bare in the biblical illiteracy we have grow comfortable with. But it is us as individuals who have simply become satisfied with our own self centeredness who are really to blame. The world, politics, creature comforts, family, sports, work and cultural ministry all take center stage in the lives of the average Christian. Not God's truth as to identification and resurrection and ascension of the saint. Therefore most remain first Adam creatures, carnal ["sin is in the flesh"] in nature, as to their spiritual life. This is not the life God has directed us too. Then why is it the dominant Christian apprehension of the Gospel?

      It really quite simple. We have not reached a place of deep enough sorrow and loneliness, in reliance upon self, to gain the opportunity the Lord has for us in His heavenly life by Grace. If our affections are true to the Lord Jesus they will make this world a barren wilderness in our estimation of all around. This is the place He will speak to our hearts. But we and the institutional church avoid such at all costs in order to maintain the status quo. Jesus Christ was utterly rejected by man and the world systems. We must realize that we have taken up that very same position in spirit. This is our place of true spiritual life according to Paul; God's biblical revealer of heavenly positional and identification gospel truth.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ " Eph. 1:3. Whose side and life will you abide within, the worlds or the Lord Jesus Christ?